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Mouse cancer genome unveils genetic errors in human cancers

2011-03-24
Scientists who pioneered sequencing the genomes of cancer patients to find novel genetic changes at the root of the disease now have turned their attention to a laboratory workhorse — a mouse. By sequencing the genome of a mouse with cancer, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have uncovered mutations that also drive cancer in humans. The investigators are the first to sequence a mouse cancer genome, and their research is reported online March 23 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. "This approach gives us a way to rapidly evaluate ...

New insight into how environmental enrichment enhances memory

2011-03-24
It is well established that environmental enrichment, providing animals with rich sensory, motor, and social stimulation, produces both dramatic increases in the number of synapses in the brain and enhanced learning. However, causal relationships between synapse formation and improved memory have not been definitively established. Now, a new study published by Cell Press in the March 24 issue of the journal Neuron introduces a valuable model system for investigating the role of synapse turnover in learning and memory in adult animals and elucidates mechanisms that link ...

The evolution of brain wiring: Navigating to the neocortex

2011-03-24
A new study is providing fascinating insight into how projections conveying sensory information in the brain are guided to their appropriate targets in different species. The research, published by Cell Press in the March 24 issue of the journal Neuron, reveals a surprising new evolutionary scenario that may help to explain how subtle changes in the migration of "guidepost" neurons underlie major differences in brain connectivity between mammals and nonmammalian vertebrates. The neocortex (the "new" cortex) is a brain area that is unique to mammals and plays a central ...

Mass. General study reveals how lung cancers evolve in response to targeted treatment

2011-03-24
A detailed analysis of lung tumors that became resistant to targeted therapy drugs has revealed two previously unreported resistance mechanisms. In a report in the March 23 Science Translational Medicine, investigators from the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Cancer Center also describe how the cellular nature of some tumors actually changes in response to treatment and find that resistance-conferring mutations can disappear after treatment is discontinued. The findings support the importance of monitoring the molecular status of tumors throughout the treatment process. "It ...

Red tape for clinical trial consent can be lethal: Experts

2011-03-24
Current rules requiring researchers to obtain consent for patients to take part in clinical trials in emergency situations are causing life-threatening delays to treatment, experts have argued. They say that in severe trauma cases, waiting for a relative to give written permission is "unethical" because of the importance of prompt treatment. Professor Ian Roberts, Dr Haleema Shakur and Dr David Prieto-Merino, from the Clinical Trials Unit of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, make their point in a letter published in The Lancet. It is co-signed by Sir ...

Why salad helps you say yes to 'NO'

2011-03-24
Disorders of the circulatory system- vascular diseases- are common in the developed world, and can lead to heart attacks, strokes and even death. However, treatments for these disorders, such as bypass surgery and angioplasty, themselves induce vascular injury, after which the cells of the blood vessel can over-proliferate in a way that limits blood flow. Nitric oxide (NO) is an important molecule that helps maintain the contractility and health of vascular smooth muscle cells, and multiple studies have linked vascular pathology to a decreased level of NO. Therefore, therapies ...

JCI online early table of contents: March 23, 2011

2011-03-24
EDITOR'S PICK Why salad helps you say yes to NO Disorders of the circulatory system- vascular diseases- are common in the developed world, and can lead to heart attacks, strokes and even death. However, treatments for these disorders, such as bypass surgery and angioplasty, themselves induce vascular injury, after which the cells of the blood vessel can over-proliferate in a way that limits blood flow. Nitric oxide (NO) is an important molecule that helps maintain the contractility and health of vascular smooth muscle cells, and multiple studies have linked vascular ...

When T cells attack: Insight into the mechanism of myocarditis

2011-03-24
Myocardits is an inflammation of the heart muscles that is a major cause of heart failure in young patients. In some cases, the disease is caused by viral infection, but in other patients it is linked to an autoimmune attack on the heart muscle. There are few effective treatment options for myocarditis, in part because the molecular mechanisms that underlie the defect are poorly defined. In this paper, researchers led by Myra Lipes, at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, Massachusetts, used a mouse model of spontaneous myocarditis. They found that the disease occurs ...

Niche Retails Seeks Magento-Based Sites for Free Reviews and Evaluations

Niche Retails Seeks Magento-Based Sites for Free Reviews and Evaluations
2011-03-24
Niche Retail, a Magento Enterprise Solutions Partner, has announced a free review of Magento websites for those who are interested in maximizing customer conversions and in increasing exposure for their site. Specializing in advanced, Magento-based designs for online retail stores, Niche Retail has been developing sites for retail clients with a great deal of success, helping companies drive traffic to their online stores and convert those visits into sales. Now, Niche Retail is offering free exposure to those who have utilized the Magento platform for their business, with ...

Scientists identify gene responsible for severe skin condition

2011-03-24
The drug, called carbamazepine, is commonly used to treat patients with epilepsy and other diseases such as depression and trigeminal neuralgia. Although successful in treating the majority of patients, carbamazepine can cause side-effects that range from a mild skin irritation to severe blistering of the whole body. The team, in collaboration with the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, screened more than a million variants in DNA across the human genome to understand why some patients are more prone to the drug's side-effects than others. Research in Taiwan has already ...

Europe-wide survey reveals priorities for end-of-life care

2011-03-24
A survey of over 9,000 people in seven different countries across Europe has shown that the majority would want to improve the quality of life in the time they had left, rather than extend it. The survey reveals attitudes across Europe for dealing with serious illnesses such as cancer, and issues raised when caring for a close friend of relative in the last few months of life. The research was carried out as part of an EU-funded project led by researchers from King's College London. The telephone survey of 9,339 people was carried out to explore attitudes to end of life ...

New method for preparation of high-energy carbon-carbon double bonds

2011-03-24
CHESTNUT HILL, MA (3/24/2011) – A new catalytic chemical method for the synthesis of a large and important class of carbon-carbon double bonds has been developed by scientists from Boston College and MIT, the team reports in the journal Nature. The findings substantially expand the versatility of a set of metal-based catalysts discovered only three years ago by the researchers. With molybdenum at their core, the catalysts have now proven capable of generating the higher-energy isomer of an alkene molecule from two simpler and much more readily accessible terminal versions, ...

Exposure to chemicals in environment associated with onset of early menopause

2011-03-24
Chevy Chase, MD— A recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM) found that higher levels of perfluorocarbons (PFCs) in the body are associated with increased odds of having experienced menopause in women between 42 and 64 years old. Women in this age group with high levels of PFCs also had significantly lower concentrations of estrogen when compared to women who had low levels of PFCs. PFCs are man-made chemicals used in a variety of household products including food containers, clothing, furniture, ...

Mother's obesity may lead to infertility in the next generation

2011-03-24
Chevy Chase, MD—Levels of the hormone ghrelin are low in obese women and a recent study accepted for publication in Endocrinology, a publication of The Endocrine Society, reports that mice whose mothers had low ghrelin levels were less fertile due to a defect in implantation. Hormones involved in energy balance and metabolism, such as ghrelin, have been shown to regulate reproductive function in animals and humans. However ghrelin's role in reproductive tract development remains unclear. The current study examined the effect of ghrelin deficiency on the developmental ...

Do all student athletes need heart screenings?

2011-03-24
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Seemingly every year there are reports of a young, apparently healthy athlete dying on the court or playing field. The sudden death of Wes Leonard, a junior at Fennville High School, who died of cardiac arrest from an enlarged heart on March 3, may have parents and coaches wondering if enough is being done to identify athletes at risk for dying suddenly. "We would like to develop a better screening program to help prevent sudden cardiac death, but there is not enough rigorous data to support what that should look like," says Sanjaya Gupta, M.D., clinical ...

Rapid etching X-rayed

2011-03-24
A breakthrough in the study of chemical reactions during etching and coating of materials was achieved by a research group headed by Kiel physicist, Professor Olaf Magnussen. The team from the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (CAU), Germany, in collaboration with staff from the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble, France, have uncovered for the first time just what happens in manufacturing processes, used for the formation of metal contacts thinner than a human hair in modern consumer electronics, such as flat-screen television. The results ...

Ambrico Announces Brick Partnership with Clover Creek Brick Company

Ambrico Announces Brick Partnership with Clover Creek Brick Company
2011-03-24
Ambrico, creators of the popular E-Z Thin Brick installation system, have announced a new partnership with Clover Creek Brick Company of Kentucky. As providers of high quality clay brick and thin brick products, Ambrico is excited about this latest partnership, which brings Clover Creek's exclusive products directly to their customers. Specializing in high quality, tumbled bricks, Clover Creek has been producing materials at their historical production site for over 125 years, making them leaders in the clay brick industry. Ambrico, who has been recommending Clover ...

Even mild stress is linked to long-term disability

2011-03-24
Even relatively mild stress can lead to long term disability and an inability to work, reveals a large population based study published online in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. It is well known that mental health problems are associated with long term disability, but the impact of milder forms of psychological stress is likely to have been underestimated, say the authors. Between 2002 and 2007, the authors tracked the health of more than 17,000 working adults up to the age of 64, who had been randomly selected from the population in the Stockholm ...

International laws may be part of maritime piracy problem

2011-03-24
International piracy costs the shipping industry billions of dollars a year and leads to high-profile murders that make global headlines. Longstanding concerns over piracy have led to numerous international laws and conventions designed to keep pirates in check – but research from North Carolina State University shows that the tangled network of laws may actually be helping pirates escape justice. "We wanted to know why the international community is not working together and taking advantage of existing laws to address piracy, even as piracy is on the rise in places like ...

Long-term methadone treatment can affect the brain

2011-03-24
Methadone has been used to treat heroin addicts for nearly 50 years. Yet we have surprisingly incomplete knowledge about possible harmful effects from prolonged use. New research from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health shows that methadone affects the brain and impairs the attention of experimental animals. In general, opioids such as heroin and morphine are known to weaken intellectual functions such as learning, memory and attention. "It is therefore tempting to assume that methadone has similar effects," says researcher Jannike M. Andersen at the NIPH's Division ...

What's mine is virtually yours

2011-03-24
Applications on modern wireless devices make demands on data rate and connectivity far beyond anything experienced in the past. One way to meet these stringent requirements is to give the device multiple antennas or multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology. The problem of physically accommodating these additional antennas in the latest consumer products is investigated in new research from the University of Bristol. The study by academics in the field of antennas and propagation in the University's Centre for Communications Research (CCR) is published in the journal ...

Statins make radiation more effective at curing prostate cancer

2011-03-24
Men with high-risk prostate cancer who take statin drugs commonly used to lower cholesterol while receiving radiation therapy are less likely to have their cancer return than patients who do not take these medications, according to a study published in the March issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology•Biology•Physics, an official journal of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO). In the study, 1,681 men with high-risk, localized prostate cancer were treated with radiation therapy between 1995 and 2007. Of them, 382 (23 percent) were taking ...

Benefit of Disease Management Programs Remains Unclear

2011-03-24
It is not clear whether disease management programs (DMPs), which are expensive and involve a great deal of documentation, improve medical outcomes for participants. Roland Linder's working group present their results in the current issue of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2011; 108[10]: 155󈞪). In 2009, DMPs in Germany cost around 1.1 billion euros; the larger part of this related to the DMP for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The authors investigated whether the T2DM DMP resulted in medical benefit for patients. To do this, they analyzed ...

A Product Defect May be the Cause of Your Bicycle Injury

2011-03-24
With 300 days of sunshine a year, it is no surprise that bicycling is a popular pastime in the State of Colorado. Whether for transportation or recreation, thousands of Coloradans take to the streets and trails all year long. Considering the sheer volume of cyclists in the state, some bike accidents will inevitably happen. Yet, many of those hurt while cycling fail to consider a possible cause of their injuries: bicycle defects. Bike product recalls are a common occurrence. A bicycle design or manufacturing defect can cause severe injury to the rider. Unfortunately, ...

First sex linked to better body image in men, not women

2011-03-24
Having sex for the first time can improve or degrade your self-image depending on whether you are male or female, according to Penn State researchers. On average, college-age males become more satisfied with their appearance after first intercourse, whereas college-age females become slightly less satisfied. "We're not talking about 12-year-old girls having sex, so it's striking that even among these young women -- who are 17 or older when they first had sex -- their images of themselves went down," said Eva S. Lefkowitz, associate professor of human development and family ...
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